westworldfandomcom-20200222-history
Chestnut
| season = 1 | number = 2 | image = .jpg | imagewidth = 210 | airdate = | writer = Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy | director = Richard J. Lewis | previous = "The Original" | next = "The Stray" }} is the second episode of Westworld, and the second episode of the first season. The episode was co-written by series creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and directed by Richard J. Lewis. Synopsis Plot Dolores hears a voice: "Do you remember?" Dolores steps outside her home, dressed in her nightclothes, and digs up a hand gun. We see a pair of visitors stepping off a train: Logan (played by Ben Barnes) and William (Jimmi Simpson). Logan is arrogant, and William is passive. William is married to Logan’s sister, they work at the same company William is greeted by a female host in a white dress who takes him into a private set of changing rooms. She tells him there are no formal guidebooks or instructions, and that "figuring out how it works is half the fun." "Are you real?" William asks her. "If you can’t tell, does it matter?" she replies. She presents him with an array of clothes and weapons, all fitted to his size. He asks if there's a changing room. "I can help you or, if you prefer, I can step outside." she says. He asks what most people do, and she assures he doesn’t have to worry about that. She starts to unbutton his shirt and he declines, she politely leaves him to change on his own. In Westworld's control building, Elsie Hughes is working when her boss, Bernard Lowe enters, he asks her how she's doing with "the build for the new narrative". Elsie is working on the problems that Peter Abernathy had after finding the modern photograph. She can't find out why it caused problems in the way it did - he shouldn't have brooded on it all night. Elsie says that it was Robert Ford' addition to the update that caused the problem and wants to rebuild Peter, or at least recall the hosts that had contact with him. Bernard won't allow it. In Sweetwater everything is bustling and normal, Dolores Abernathy is crossing the street to her horse carrying the shopping, just as she does every morning. Halfway across she pauses and looks puzzled - she hears a male voice saying "Remember" and turns. Looking down the street she sees a very different scene, bodies and wreckage are lying everywhere and a cart is on fire. She can hear faint screams. The only thing moving in the street is a wolf, loping from body to body. She's disturbed from her unpleasant daydream, her reverie, by Maeve Millay, who asks her not to stand there, in case people are put off her wares in the bar. Dolores, still not really with it, turns to her and says "These violent delights have violent ends." Maeve stares at her until Dolores recovers and walks off. William changes and is greeted by the same woman as before. She offers him a black or white hat, he chooses white. He goes into the bar where he orders a drink, looking about him at the people and the bar. Logan emerges, zipping up his fly. The bar turns out to be on a train which comes out of a tunnel and crosses the spectacular Utah scenery of the Westworld park. A man is about to be hung by what looks like a posse. The gibbet is improvised and the man is having to balance on the handle of some railway machinery, a small handcar. The Man in Black (MiB) rides up and, after a short conversation with the leader of the posse, kills everyone except the condemned man. It's clear that the MiB is a human whilst everyone else are hosts. He has no trouble killing them all but they don't manage to shoot him even once. The man removes his blindfold to see the dead posse and the Man in Black, who greets him by name and shows him the scalp taken from Kissy. The MiB tells Lawrence that he wants the answers, binds Lawrence's hands and rides off, dragging the rescued man stumbling along behind him. Maeve is giving her standard introduction speech, about the little voice, to a newly arrived guest. While she speaks we see her remember being attacked by a native American with an axe. She's dressed in farmers' clothing and has a small girl, her daughter, with her. The new guest sees she's distressed and gets up, excusing himself. Maeve doesn't seem to notice him leave. We see Maeve in Analysis Mode undergoing a review, she's sitting on a stool while a man talks. He asks her "what did it say?" she answers that "This is the new world etc." The man examines her and can't see the problem, can't see why her success rate has dropped. They decide to double her "agression" in a last attempt to get her numbers back up. Robert Ford and Bernard Lowe are watching a host being manufactured. Lowe tells Ford that the two hosts have been retired, he also says he found it quite hard to do that. Ford digs out of Bernard the problem with the photograph not being enough to cause the failure to Peter Abernathy. They discuss the possibility of sabotage. Ford thinks it's more likely to be something just going wrong, that the task of creating lifelike machines is complex enough to guarantee strange failures. The train arrives at Sweetwater, they disembark and walk into the town. The big man who bumped into Teddy Flood by the station does the same to William, who apologises and is told off by Logan for being polite. Clementine Pennyfeather tries to tempt them in as they pass, but Logan tips his hat and carries on. A man is thrown off the back of a passing cart as they cross the street. He lands face down in the mud and William is told off again for trying to help him. Logan's obviously come across the man before and knows he wants to take them treasure hunting. William has noticed Delores loading her shopping into saddle bags. She sees her reflection in a window and pauses, troubled by something. Briefly we see her in Analysis Mode being told "Bring yourself back online." Dolores says "Hello" to Bernard who asks her if she remembers their last conversation, she says she does and he makes sure she hasn't told anyone about the conversations he has with her. This is not a normal session with a programmer, she's sitting on an ordinary wooden chair, and she's clothed. He tells her to go into Analysis Mode and asks if anyone else has updated her core heuristics, her deep programming. She says that no one has. He brings her back into character and says that she's not to mention him talking to her. She asks if he's done something wrong and he tells her to remove the conversation from her logs. He sends her back into the park. We see Maeve being more aggressive - it just makes the poor guest uncomfortable. Maeve talks to Clementine, asking if she's having nightmares. She shares her trick or waking from a dream with Clementine. We see her remembering something traumatic and Teddy asks if she's ok. In the control room they're monitoring her performance and decide to give Clementine the role of Madam, and withdraw Maeve in the morning. Theresa Cullen is smoking, joined by Bernard. She quizzes him about the update and he reassures her. William and Logan are eating a meal in the hotel dining room. William stops Logan from shooting another guest to see if they're a guest. They're joined by the old man William helped in the street. Logan tries to get rid of him, when he doesn't take the hint Logan stabs him through the hand, pinning him to the table. We see Logan having sex with three women. and William chatting to Clementine. He is uncomfortable about having sex with her because he has a partner. In the control room we see Lee Sizemore berating a designer for not doing what he wanted. Therese watches him and talks about his request for 50 additional hosts - he's getting 20. Ford has still to approve the new narrative. We see Ford going into the park, he walks through the desert and meets a boy of about ten, he says he's wandered off from his parents. They chat and walk together. Ford seems unbothered by enticing a boy away. The Man In Black is still towing Lawrence. He questions him about Kissy. He's taken Lawrence home, they sit at a table outside a Mexican cafe. Lawrence's wife and daughter are there. The MiB tries to get Lawrence to tell him the entrance to the maze, Lawrence denies any knowledge and the Mib shoots the face owne, some other men and then Lawrence's wife, in the head after playing with her. The little girl isn't very alarmed, she tells the Mib that the maze isn't meant for him but tells him to follow the Blood Arroyo (a dry creek or river bed) to the place where the snake lays its eggs. Lawrence tell him to go now, the MiB says that he's never going back, and leaves with him in tow again. Ford and the boy are still walking. Ford tells the boy to look at the town with the white church and liten to its bell (there's nothihng there) the boy says he can hear it. Ford shows the boy how he can control a rattle snake with gestures. At the bottom of the slope is a dark spire. He tells the boy to head home, and that he won't be back. THe boy drops his stick and obediently goes - it's obvious now that he's a host. Bernard goes back to his quarters, Theresa arrives and we see that they're in a secret intimate relationship. In bed together, later, they talk - about how he never talks but that his hosts never stop. We see Maeve being decommissioned, Elsie is examining her, she doesn't approve of the extra aggression "those morons" have added. She saves Maeve's current config and makes some small, precisely targeted, adjustments. Her assistant asks if they dream,. Elsie says they don't, but that they do have the concept of dreams as a safety precaution. She notes that Maeve has some physical discomfort and schedules a full physical examination at her next rotation. Elsie passes her as fit and puts her back to work. We see Maeve flirting, very successfully, with a guest. Elsie's adjustments have worked and she's back on form. Teddy and Maeve talk, about their various sins, they seem friendly. A guest shoots Teddy, repeatedly. Maeve shows mild disapproval but remembers a previous violent episode. In a dream she remembers being happy with her daughter on the farm, but it becomes confused with her being attacked. She runs for her daughter and locks the door of the farmhouse, getting the shotgun. The door opens on the Mib, she tries to shoot him but with no effect. Maeve counts backwards to wake herself. She wakes on the examination table, it's her physical; and two technicians are cleaning up an MRSA infection in her abdomen. She opens her eyes and looks around her - scared. They see her moving and are very scared. They try to control her with no luck, blaming each other/ She threatens them with a scalpel, telling them to keep their hands off her. She escapes from the room and runs, holding her abdomen together. She finds herself in an area where damaged hosts are repaired, she sees Teddy with the gunshot wounds. While she's watching, the two technicians retrieve her. They hide the fact that she awoke and behaved strangely. In her nightgown, Dolores finds a gun and takes it indoors. Lee Sizemore is performing, outlining his new narrative. "Odyssey on Red River" He speaks about how wonderful it will be. Ford is watching, as are Therese and Bernard. Ford simply says "No, I don't think so." He doesn't see the point and humiliates Sizemore in front of everyone. As Ford speaks we see William crosses to pick up Dolores' stray tin can. They don't speak but William tips his hat to her and she smiles back at him as Logan calls him away. Ford says that the new narrative speaks more about Sizemore than about the guests. Later, he's showing Bernard the black spire he was looking at earlier, it appears to be part of of a new narrative that Ford has been working on for some time. Trivia * The guests' clothes look authentic but, sensibly, have modern conveniences. Logan has a zip-fastener in his trousers, his pants, and we see him pulling it up when he enters the the bar. Zip-fastener or zippers weren't in common use until the 20th century. Cast Main Cast *Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy *Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay *Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe *James Marsden as Teddy Flood *Ben Barnes as Logan *Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence *Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs *Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen *Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore *Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather *Jimmi Simpson as William *Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes *Ed Harris as Man in Black *Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford Supporting Cast *Ptolemy Slocum as Sylvester *Leonardo Nam as Lutz *Talulah Riley as Angela *Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy *Oliver Bell as Little Boy *Sal Lopez as Cigarillo Co-Stars Notes *The episode was released four days early on HBO Go for free streaming, before its official premiere on Sunday Night. de:Chestnut Category:Season one episodes